Reliance Jio has launched a 100% cashback offer with JioFi 4G router, as the Mukesh Ambani-owned tries to attract users of dongles, datacard and wifi routers offered by rival telcos.
The company has come up with two plans where as part of the first plan, users will get a 100% exchange offer where they'll be required to exchange their existing datacard, dongle or hotspot router at any Jio Digital store or Jio Care store and will get 4G data worth Rs 2010 against the device exchanged.
The customers will have to pay Rs 1999 to get the JioFi router and will have to do a mandatory first recharge of Rs 408 which is Rs309 for the plan - which ensures freebies for 84 days - and Rs99 for a Jio Prime membership.
Therefore, the customer pays Rs 1999 minus the Rs 2010 worth 4G data which translates into zero cost for the customer and the device with internet connection becomes almost free. However, the Rs 408 mandatory recharge is the additional cost which the user will have to pay in order to avail the services.
Under the second plan, users get JioFi at Rs 1999 after a first mandatory recharge of Rs 408 (Rs309 + Rs99) but they get 4G data worth Rs 1005 which translates to the effective cost of Rs 994 (Rs1999 - Rs1005). Users need not exchange their existing data connections for this plan.
The first plan is ideal for all existing dongle users whereas the second plan is ideal for laptop users, 2G/3G phone users and tablet users, the person said.
Queries addressed to Jio for the new plans went unanswered till the press time. Reliance Retail currently has four JioFi devices running in the market namely JioFi 1 Router, JioFi 2 Router, JioFi 3 Router, JioFi 4 Dongle.
With the first plan, the telco is trying to capture the market of rival telcos offering dongles, datacard and wifi routers, since the exchange scheme will encourage existing dongle users to shift to Jio's services, say experts.
They added that by offering free data in the second plan to the first time users or users that are willing to keep multiple connections, the telco is looking to expand the subscriber-base for its JioFi routers.
RIL's retail arm namely Reliance Retail sold 2.6 million LYF and JioFi devices during the last quarter and nearly 10 million units in the financial year, and is further looking to accelerate the sales with the launch of new JioFi plans.